Stock Market & Financial Investment News

On The Fly: Pre-market MoversHIGHER: Intercept (ICPT), up 46% after upgraded at Leerink and Citigroup following OCA data. Conatus Pharmaceuticals (CNAT), which also develops treatments for liver disease, up 8.5%... Fontegra Financial (FRF), up 40% after Tiptree Financial (TIPT) to acquire the company for $10.00 per share in cash... Insys Therapeutics (INSY), up 15.4% after submiting NDA for new formula of Dronabinol Oral Solution, saying it is on track to submit at least four IND applications with the FDA in the second half of 2014... Exact Sciences (EXAS), up 8% after announcing FDA approved for Cologuard... Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), up 2.7% after upgraded at Stifel. UP AFTER EARNINGS: Kate Spade (KATE), up 5.5%... Noah Holdings (NOAH), up 3%... ReneSola (SOL), up 5%... Supernus (SUPN), up 14%. LOWER: NII Holdings (NIHD), down 54.5% after warning it needs to make "key decisions" to address liquidity, "likely" to file a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code... Dendreon (DNDN), down 23.6% after warning that its alternatives could leave shareholders with no ownership... magicJack (CALL), down 10.3%, downgraded at Canaccord following Q2 results... Hi-Crush Partners (HCLP), down 4.7% after filing to sell 3.26M common units representing limited partners... Triangle Capital (TCAP), down 3.8% after filing to sell 4M shares of common stock. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: Nuance (NUAN), down 9.4%... Flowers Foods (FLO), down 7.8%.

News For KATE;ANF;ICPT;CNAT;DNDN;EXAS;NOAH;SOL;CALL;FLO;HCLP;TCAP;FRF;TIPT;SUPN;INSY From The Last 14 Days

On The Fly: Pre-market Movers UP AFTER EARNINGS: Ctrip.com (CTRP), up 20.1%... Rally Software (RALY), up 17.3%... Nike (NKE), up 5.2%... Darden Restaurants (DRI), up 4.3%... Cheetah Mobile (CMCM), up 3.6%. ALSO HIGHER: Prothena (PRTA), up 40.2% after reporting positive results from Phase 1 study of PRX002... Viggle (VGGL), up 26.9% after confirming receipt of offer from chairman and CEO Robert Sillerman... Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT), up 8.5% after announcing new data analyses from FLINT trial... Biogen Idec (BIIB), up 9.7% after presenting positive interim results from study of aducanumab... Pier 1 Imports (PIR), up 5.2% after being upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer... JinkoSolar (JKS), up 2.8% after announcing that it will supply 75 MWdc of its PV solar modules to Red Horse 2 project and following a strategic collaboration agreement with DuPont (DD). DuPont is up just under 1%. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: AK Steel (AKS), down 6.8%... Youku Tudou (YOKU), down 4.9%... Tiffany (TIF), down 3.3%. ALSO LOWER: Macerich (MAC), down 7.7% after Simon makes $95.50 per share "best and final" offer.

On The Fly: Midday WrapStocks on Wall Street were lower at midday, with the Dow falling about 1%. The market opened in negative territory and proceeded to gain additional downside momentum in early trading. Data on housing starts was not good, even accounting for bad weather in many areas of the country, and the prospect of interest rate increases on the horizon may have some fearing that the housing market recovery is in danger of stalling. Adding to the weakness in stocks may have been the further slide in crude oil prices, which pushed benchmark U.S. crude oil below $43 per barrel earlier in the session. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., housing starts plunged 17% to an 897K rate in February, widely undershooting expectations for starts to be down 2.4% to a 1.04M rate, but much of the slide was attributed to weather. Building permits rose 3% to a rate of 1.092M, which was better than the expected 0.5% growth to a 1.065M rate. In Europe, Germany's ZEW Center investor confidence index climbed to 54.8 from 53 last month, though that fell short of the 59.4 consensus forecast. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.6% to close at its highest level in over 6 years. COMPANY NEWS: Apple (AAPL) is preparing to launch an online TV service later this year, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. After the reports, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he believes Apple's online TV service launch would lay the groundwork for an actual television launch sometime in 2016. Munster estimates that at an average selling price of $1,750, a television could add about 7% to Apple's 2017 revenue. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Black Diamond (BDE), which jumped 30% after the company reported was then expected quarterly results and guidance but also announced it has hired two banks to help it explore its strategic alternatives. Also higher was Esperion (ESPR), which rose 15% after the company's phase 2b study of ETC-1002, a product in development for patients with hypercholesterolemia on stable statin therapy, met its primary endpoints. Among the noteworthy losers was Himax (HIMX), which dropped 9% after BofA Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock two notches to Underperform from Buy. Also lower following its earnings report was magicJack (CALL), which fell 19%. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 152.00, or 0.85%, to 17,825.42, the Nasdaq was down 8.39, or 0.17%, to 4,921.12, and the S&P 500 was down 11.39, or 0.55%, to 2,069.80.

On The Fly: Analyst Initiation SummaryToday's noteworthy initiations include: Aimco (AIV) initiated with an Outperform at RW Baird... Alnylam (ALNY) initiated with a Buy at Janney Capital... American Campus (ACC) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... AvalonBay (AVB) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... BE Aerospace (BEAV) initiated with a Buy at CRT Capital... BlackRock (BLK) initiated with a Buy at Argus... Camden Property (CPT) initiated with an Outperform at RW Baird... CarMax (KMX) initiated with a Buy at Evercore ISI... Central Pacific (CPF) initiated with a Neutral at Macquarie... Cognex (CGNX) initiated with a Buy at Northcoast... Education Realty (EDR) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... EnerSys (ENS) initiated with an Overweight at Stephens... Equity Lifestyle (ELS) initiated with an Outperform at RW Baird... Equity Residential (EQR) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... Essex Property Trust (ESS) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... Facebook (FB) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital... Intercept (ICPT) initiated with a Hold at MLV & Co.... Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) initiated with a Neutral at Janney Capital... LinkedIn (LNKD) initiated with a Sell at Brean Capital... Mid-America Apartment (MAA) initiated with an Outperform at RW Baird... NetSuite (N) initiated with a Hold at Brean Capital... Paycom (PAYC) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital... Platform Specialty Products (PAH) initiated with a Buy at UBS... Post Properties (PPS) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... Salesforce.com (CRM) initiated with a Hold at Brean Capital... ServiceNow (NOW) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital... Snap-On (SNA) initiated with a Buy at Northcoast... Sun Communities (SUI) initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird... Twitter (TWTR) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital... UDR, Inc. (UDR) initiated with an Outperform at RW Baird... Workday (WDAY) initiated with a Hold at Brean Capital... Xplore Technologies (XPLR) initiated with a Buy at Roth Capital... Yahoo (YHOO) initiated with a Hold at Argus.